White Sox get no new money from naming rights deal with Guaranteed Rate

Tribune photographer Chris Sweda asks Sox fans what they think of the name change from U.S. Cellular Field to Guaranteed Rate Field before a game on Aug. 24, 2016. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

Tribune photographer Chris Sweda asks Sox fans what they think of the name change from U.S. Cellular Field to Guaranteed Rate Field before a game on Aug. 24, 2016. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

Peter MatuszakChicago Tribune

The new naming rights deal for the publicly owned stadium where the White Sox play baseball is worth $25.1 million but will deliver no additional money to the team, documents associated with the agreement show.

The White Sox will receive only the remaining value of the original 2003 agreement with U.S. Cellular, which amounts to $20.4 million. The remaining $4.7 million will go to the state agency that serves as landlord of the ballpark, the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority.

The deal to change the facility's name to Guaranteed Rate Field, which was announced last week, runs through 2029. If the agreement is extended for a year, the authority would receive $6.4 million in all.

The amount of money the contract could give to the White Sox was limited by the terms of the team's stadium lease, which state that any additional money received for naming rights after the U.S. Cellular deal "shall be used in the stadium in a manner agreed upon between the team and the authority."

Additional deals with Guaranteed Rate for other sponsorships thus became one way for the White Sox to increase earnings from the new relationship. Among other things, Guaranteed Rate is becoming "the official mortgage and title company of the White Sox," the team said last week. No financial details of those arrangements were disclosed.

Jim Andrews, senior vice president for IEG, a Chicago-based sports marketing firm, said the naming rights deal of about $25 million over 13 years did not seem undervalued, especially given the side sponsorship agreements.

"The value of the additional sponsorships will be significant but should not be as big as the naming rights portion of the deal," Andrews said. "Guaranteed Rate was after the naming rights; that was the target."

The Chicago White Sox announced on Wednesday that on Nov. 1, U.S. Cellular Field's name will change to Guaranteed Rate Field.

An agreement for 13-year naming rights was reached with the mortgage lender.

Twitter reaction was swift, and full of jokes.

The owner and operator of the ballpark, the Illinois...

The White Sox, Guaranteed Rate and U.S. Cellular have declined to disclose many details of the naming rights contract.

But the total value of the contract, as well as the amounts received by the team and the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, are included in documents the Tribune obtained from the authority. On Aug. 24, the authority unanimously approved a consent agreement that allowed the deal to move forward.

The documents say U.S. Cellular will pay a portion of the $20.4 million still owed on the company's 2003 agreement, but the amount is not stated. Without that figure, it is impossible to tell how much Guaranteed Rate actually will pay to hang its name on the publicly owned stadium.

The authority considers those details to be confidential to the White Sox and its partners, said Anthony J. O'Neill, the agency's general counsel.

U.S. Cellular bought the naming rights for what had been the new Comiskey Park for $68 million in a deal that ran through 2028. The annual value of that 26-year deal was $2.6 million, though the payments were condensed into 20 annual installments of $3.4 million ending after 2022.

The new deal lasts for 13 years with an average annual value of $1.9 million, but the structure of the payments has not been disclosed.

Brooks Boyer, White Sox senior vice president for sales and marketing, said last week that the White Sox had initiated the negotiations to replace U.S. Cellular as the stadium's headline sponsor. U.S. Cellular exited the Chicago market in 2013 but remained a dedicated partner for the team with its headquarters still in the city, Boyer said.

O'Neill said the authority's governing board and the White Sox had agreed that the $4.7 million due to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority — or $6.4 million, if the contract is extended — would be provided without restrictions. That means the authority may spend the money as it sees fit, according to O'Neill, who suggested it may be used to help retire debt.

Additional changes to the lease agreement may be necessary to work around the requirement that any additional funds from naming rights be spent on the stadium, O'Neill said.

O'Neill also said the White Sox will get paid first, leaving the authority to wait until the later years of the contract. That schedule is beneficial because the money could be used to cover increasing debt payments owed in those years, he added.

After 81 years across 35th Street at old Comiskey Park, the White Sox moved into their new home -- then the new Comiskey Park and now U.S. Cellular Field -- on April 18, 1991. In the 25 seasons since, there have been many memorable moments, good and bad, at the park. With the Sox commemorating their 25th season at the Cell on this homestand, the Tribune takes a look at the 25 most memorable -- and five Sox fans might like to forget.

The new Comiskey Park opened in 1991, was renamed U.S. Cellular Field in 2003 and will be renamed again to Guaranteed Rate Field starting Nov. 1, 2016.

The White Sox said Thursday that the agency will begin receiving funds from the naming rights deal in 2027.